China Mobile, the world's biggest mobile operator by subscribers, said Wednesday the company is in talks with Apple to offer the popular iPhone to its users in the Asian nation.

The company's domestic rivals -- China Unicom and China Telecom -- already offer the iPhone to their subscribers.

Japanese technology titan NEC has unveiled a gadget that allows users to control their TV, mobile phone or tablet computer using a virtual input device.

The company said a camera that recognizes three-dimensional shapes and their movements will combine with a projector that could show the image of an input device -- such as a keyboard -- on almost any surface.

Smartphones now account for more than half of all South Korea's mobile phones following the iPhone's belated debut in the tech-savvy country in late 2009, industry figures showed Tuesday.

According to the data from the three telecom companies, the number of smartphone subscribers hit 26.77 million late last week, 50.9 percent of the total 52.55 million mobile phone users.

Software piracy cost the industry a record $63.4 billion globally in 2011 with emerging economies listed as the main culprits, an annual study said Tuesday.

This was up nearly eight percent from the previous record of $58.8 billion in 2010, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) said in the study.

Japan's cash-bleeding electronics giants Sony and Panasonic are looking to join forces to produce next generation televisions in a bid to claw back market from South Korean rivals, a report said Tuesday.

The firms want to speed up the development of large-screen organic electroluminescence (OEL) televisions, which consume less power and offer a sharper picture than conventional flat panels, the Nikkei daily said.

Facts and figures about Facebook, which priced its initial public offering:

- Facebook has more than 900 million active users. If the company were a country, it would be the third largest in the world after China (population: 1.34 billion) and India (population: 1.17 billion).

Canon Inc. is moving toward fully automating digital camera production in an effort to cut costs — a key change being played out across Japan, a world leader in robotics.

If successful, counting on machines can help preserve this nation's technological power — not the stereotype of machines snatching assembly line jobs from workers, Jun Misumi — company spokesman, said Monday.

Yahoo! floundering ship hit more rough waters on Sunday with its second commander in less than a year being forced to walk the plank.

Yahoo! boss Scott Thompson was ousted in the face of controversy about an inflated resume.

Facebook may be the year's hottest stock issue -- but try getting a piece of it. Small investors will find the line long and hurdles high to get even a handful of shares.

And membership in Facebook's social network won't help, no matter how much you "like" the company.

Facebook frenzy is spreading ahead of the company's big-time stock market debut, with anything from Mark Zuckerberg's hoodie to the billion-dollar buy of Instagram sparking controversy.

Speculation about the promise or pitfalls of owning a piece of the world's leading social network was so feverish by the weekend that one report contended there was too much demand for the stock while another said it was lacking.